January 14, 2015 YearPlanReport No comments
What I did in 2014 and idea on what I want to do in 2015
A quick recap of year 2014
2014 didn’t turn to be forth life changing year in a row. I still have the same job and live in the same place. As I probably mentioned before, I’m working as subcontractor to International Atomic Energy Agency (UN associated organization). This year I’ve mostly done JavaScript and less of .NET. But I don’t mind. That is because JavaScript has its own beauty.
My daughter is now bit older and of course occupies a lot of my time. She needs more and more attention as she moves closer to being two years old. In her year and a half she already travelled more countries than her grandparents in their lives. 2014 was definitely a year of travel. We visited islands of Malta and Mallorca and I’m really glad that my daughter is fine with planes, because this means that we can have more distant trips in future. Of course we travelled by car all around Austria (Prague and other places in Chez Republic, Munich, Slovenia and Croatia, Poland, lots of Hungary, etc) and in Austria, mainly visiting public swimming pools, museums and having some outdoor activities.
Picture taken at Ukrainian independence day celebration in Vienna, August 24 2014
It is fair to say that we tried to have each and every weekend somewhere outside. This of course had impact on what I could do to improve my professional skills outside of the work, which I didn’t do much except of reading few books.
There is one different thing that I started doing in 2014. I’m investing my money now. And not just bank deposits or mutual funds as I used to do, but the real thing – exploring equities and other instruments and buying then (for long). I’m planning to do more of this in 2015.
Plan for 2015
This is continuation of my year plan/report thread. I had similar plan for 2010, 2011, 2012, and for 2013. Completion of 2010 list was almost 100% successful, completion of 2011 list was less successful. 2012 list completion is somewhere in between. Both 2011 and 2012 greatly changed my life. Same was with the year 2013 and it was mostly successful. You can see above how my 2014 year went.
Last year I didn’t come up with new year’s resolution. Things didn’t go sideways because of that, but I had nothing to compare my achievements with. I think I will better have some simple list on what I’m planning and want to do.
- Travel to Iceland
- Travel the coast of Italy and do many other car trips
- Improve German by attending at least 1 course
- Improve English fluency and vocabulary by spending more time on learning words from read books
- Read 4 sci-fi books
- Read 13 software engineering books
- Read 13 investment books
- Start project with potential to make money
- Do programming in other languages than C# or JavaScript
- Take part in at least one programming contest
- Visit at least one conference (even small one)
- Write at least 26 blog posts
- Increase community visibility by contributing more on github, tweeting, commenting on blogs
- Improve health by exercising and attending swimming pool for at least 1 month
- Make at least 2015 euro profit on new investments in 2015
It is a bit late, but I wish you all
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
2013: Where Do You Want to Be In a Year?
January 30, 2013 YearPlanReport 9 comments
Dear Reader,
I always thought that it is important to keep track of things you are doing and also to have a plan so that you know where you are moving and where you want to be.
This is continuation of my year plan/report thread. I had similar plan for 2010, 2011 and for 2012. Completion of 2010 list was almost 100% successful, completion of 2011 list was less successful. 2012 list completion is somewhere in between. Both 2011 and 2012 greatly changed my life. Same is expected in the year 2013.
Here below is my resolution list for 2013
- The best thing which could happen
- Travel a lot
- Buy a car
- Ski high in the Alps
- Learn German for real A2
- Improve English fluency by applying more synonymous and idioms
- Perform well & keep being challenged at work
- Contribute to open source
- Deliver many technical presentations
- Extend social network at work & outside
- Write some web project
- Do programming in other languages than C#
- Take part in one or few programming contests
- Visit one or few conferences
- Improve blog quality
- Write at least 41 blog posts
- Increase community visibility
- Read as many books as I like
- Consistently do exercises
- Reach 2013 reputation at stackoverflow
- Earn 2013 euro outside
I tried to keep each point very concise therefore my list may be lacking some of SMART-iness, but in a light of high unpredictability for a long term it would be much easier to remember and follow such a plan.
What do you want to do in this year? Any good suggestions for me?
Where Do You Want to Be In a Year?
January 21, 2012 Success, YearPlanReport 7 comments
Dear Reader,
This is continuation of my year plan/report thread. I had similar plan for 2010 and for 2011. Completion of 2010 list was almost 100% successful, and completion of 2011 was much difficult and not so successful, but 2011 brought many life turning events and decisions.
I’m frustrated to admit that my head doesn’t carry this phrase all the time:
Remember, life is limited in time, so if I don’t move in the right direction I will waste it entirely.
Here below is my resolution list for 2012
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Buy a car in Europe (some used German car)
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Travel though major cities in Austria (Vienna, Salzburg, Linz, Graz, Innsbruck, Bregenz, Eisenstadt, Klagenfurt)
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Sport activities (have two-three summer hikes into the Alps & ski in the Alps)
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Learn German for at A2 level (which is elementary)
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Improve English and rich C1 level (which is advanced)
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Show kick-ass performance at work
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Get promotion (or get clear idea on career opportunities, if not possible)
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In Vienna find local .net community (user group, whatsoever) and join
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Visit TechEd Europe or NDC2012 (if possible because of budged considerations)
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Have new friends in Austria, who share same opinions
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Write couple of WP7 applications and post them to marketplace
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Write couple of Win8Metro applications for fun
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Release “Design Patterns” Book – I have 1 month to do so
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Read 15 books (see my LinkedIn reading list)
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Learn programming language(s). I will start with “7 languages in 7 weeks” and then pick up one for deeper insight (not compulsory from book)
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Discipline myself to get up at some certain time
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Have more public visibility and community impact – my way to MVP
My next annual report should contain evidence in facts to prove completion of above resolution. This resolution is bit smaller than 2011’s one, but as reality shows it should be more achievable because of this.
Please share your year resolution list! I will read with pleasure.
